


Snapshots

by TheArtisticIntrovert



Series: PAVII-verse [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Mentions of Violence, Set in my PAVII-verse, Spoilers for Paranormal Activity VII
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 03:10:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8604811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheArtisticIntrovert/pseuds/TheArtisticIntrovert
Summary: We all know Danny Phantom, how he's a half-ghost superhero.
Not in this universe. Instead, he's just an angry kid, still half-ghost but terrified of himself. How's he supposed to deal with ghosts terrorizing the populace, when he can't even bring himself to transform?





	

**Author's Note:**

> yeah major spoilers for PAVII here, don't read if you wanna be surprised. well actually, they aren't THAT major. still spoilers tho

_ “I’m not a hero. I’m just a kid who’s in way over his head.” _

 

People thought he was a delinquent. A violent punk who’d put you in the hospital if you looked at him wrong. After the incident with Dash, and consequently everyone seeing him being led out of the school in handcuffs, people gave him a wide berth. Sam and Tucker, thankfully, weren’t part of those people. Sure, they avoided him sometimes, but they came back!

 

…Usually.

 

_ “Everything was fine. At least, it was fine until the ghosts started showing up.” _

 

The portal was still active, still open. His parents forbade him going near it after the second or third time they found him down there, staring at it like he wanted to jump in.

 

So he stood at the top of the stairs and watched. Funny enough, he didn’t seem quite… _ human  _ in those moments. His eyes, normally filled with at least an  _ angry _ light, were dull and lifeless. Jazz caught a glimpse one time on her way to the kitchen, and what she saw was enough to give her nightmares for days.

 

His eyes weren’t just dull. They looked  _ dead. _

 

_ “Haha… You think I’m crazy, huh? Well, I thought I was crazy too. I kept seeing flickers of things out of the corner of my eye, shadows moving when they shouldn’t be, stuff disappearing, rooms being colder than they should be… Stuff like that.” _

 

He never wanted to be a hero. He just wanted to be a normal kid. Make it through highschool without getting killed or killing somebody, get decent grades, and make it into NASA. Hell, he’d even settle for managing to become an astronomer, if not an astronaut.

 

But with a felony assault on his record, that was impossible. They took their background checks very seriously, he’d done his research. No way would they let him in the door, let alone into the training program.

 

_ “I think it was…fifth period when the first ghost showed up. It wasn’t anywhere near me, but it was in the school. I didn’t notice…until I started coughing green smoke. It looked like stuff you’d see in an old-timey seance, you know?” _

 

Mr. Lancer would call people like him “anti-heroes”, he thought. It fit, he supposed. In a different life, he might’ve been a true hero. The kind with a superpowered alter ego that does anything to save his town. The ghost boy.

 

The Phantom.

 

But no, instead, he gets stuck with a murderous beast of an other half, one that took over his mind and body with a raw, all-consuming  _ hunger. _

 

He got stuck with the kind of alter ego that forced him to go out and buy a bat so he could deal with the problem himself.

 

_ “Did you know ghosts can bleed, kinda? Hear me out here, because this may sound a bit weird. Ghosts bleed ectoplasm. It’s like…it’s like heaven, if heaven looked like lime jello.” _

 

Danny figured he might be addicted to ectoplasm. Ever since that first day in the lab, it was like a siren’s call, a drug he just couldn’t quit. He knew the taste like the back of his hand, the smell even more so.

 

The first time he got the police called on him after beating up a ghost is when some businessman in a threadbare suit saw him lick the ectoplasm off the end of his bat. He still wasn’t sure if the man knew who he was, but he didn’t particularly care.

 

That’s why they sold masks, after all.

 

_ “I’m not stupid. I know that if someone saw my face, it’d be over for me. Normal people…they wouldn’t understand. Hell, even my so-called  _ **_friends_ ** _ don’t understand, and they were there that day! No…that’s why I use the mask.” _

 

He didn’t even have to spend anything. He just had to wait until his parents were otherwise occupied…which meant sneaking down to the lab in the dead of night. His old enemy, the security camera, was still rolling in the corner.

 

He’d been practicing, though. He concentrated on that cold sensation in his chest, poking at it just enough for his body to flicker out of view. At least, it looked invisible. Hopefully it stayed that way.

 

It’d have to do. He stole down the stairs, skipping the squeaky third one. He made a beeline for the rack in the corner of the room, locating the one with his name on it with some difficulty. Dangling loosely was a custom-sized gas mask, made especially for his head. He slipped it off the hook, darting back upstairs and to his room with nobody the wiser.

 

Still fits.

 

_ “I swear, I’m not a criminal! You already know I’m no hero, but I’m not a criminal either. I don’t beat up the ghosts for the hell of it. They’re terrorising  _ **_my_ ** _ town! They need to be taught a lesson. .........A gang leader? Heheh....Eheheheh......AHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHAA! Oh man, that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all week! Nah, I’m no gang leader. It’s just me and my bat, nobody else.” _

 

_ “I don’t  _ **_need_ ** _ anybody else, Doc.” _

**Author's Note:**

> idfk what this is. i think he's talking to a court-ordered psychiatrist. don't look at me that way i got inspiration from a misread line


End file.
